Why UK Bookmaker Ladbrokes Is Betting on Live Events
“It's a very unexpected place for us to pop up,” says Kelly Rose, head of brand for UK bookmaker Ladbrokes, who has announced the launching of Ladbrokes LIVE – an entertainment hub that rewards fans with free access to live shows. At least, it might be unexpected to the casual observer. Anyone watching parent company Entain will have seen its ambition to be a global leader in interactive entertainment, and this move is a clear part of that strategy.
Ladbrokes is one of the largest betting brands in the UK and a heritage high street bookmaker, notes Kelly. But it’s going through a metamorphosis. “We're on a journey to move from gambling giant into entertainment leader and be known as an entertainment brand.” The brand’s North Star is 'We Play Together', and Kelly sees the launch of the new hub as a step towards encapsulating that. “Play encompasses music, games, and sports. So, it's a natural step for us to make sure that our portfolio contains not only betting and casino products, but music and entertainment as well.”
The new interactive entertainment platform welcomes both existing UK customers and targets new audiences into the Ladbrokes ‘World of Play’, connecting them to music, comedy and more through its new digital hub - LadbrokesLive.co.uk - which will give them free access to a total of 15,000 tickets to must-see shows, and connect fans to artists and talent through exclusive content and unexpected experiences.
To provide those experiences, the launch sees Ladbrokes partner with The O2, one of the UK’s most famous live entertainment, leisure and retail destinations, AEG Presents, who promote and manage concerts and tours, oversee renowned venues and produce some of the world’s leading music festivals, and industry-leading music brand, NME.
The platform will offer the chance to win experiences, including premium tickets to shows at The O2 within a specially designed Ladbrokes suite, for example, the JUST FOR LAUGHS comedy festival, alongside tickets for Luno Presents All Points East festival, and other touring shows across the country – all without any betting involved.
Music is at the core of this new offering, as can be seen by the choice of partners, which are key. “We've done that deliberately, because it's a big step,” says Kelly. “We can't just show up in music. We don't have any history in music. You can't really dip in and out of [music] and expect to create an impact. To be known for something takes time. So, we've armed ourselves with two key partners. AEG Presents will provide the actual product for us - all the tickets to hundreds of shows all around the UK, so not just at the O2, but for touring acts as well. Everybody in the UK can have that live entertainment experience.”
The NME partnership is about marrying up with a brand that has decades of credibility built up in the music space. As Kelly says, it is “pretty much the most credible media partner that you can find in terms of music in the UK. If there's anything that happens in music, they are the ones that know about it, talk about it and educate everybody about it. We're really proud to be partnering with them and they will guide us into this space and help us make sure that we're understanding the audience and not just showing up like dad at the disco.”
Ladbrokes is also making sure the disco happens in the first place. The collaboration sees the return of the iconic Club NME, with a series of dates across the UK featuring incredible headline talent and unmissable DJ sets. 'We Play Together' first emerged from an insight that during the covid-19 pandemic, people were seeking new ways to connect and to play together - finding new ways to come together in online and digital spaces. Now that physical experiences are back in full swing in the UK, bringing back a beloved series of club nights feels like good timing. “Starting this journey into entertainment, one of the easy decisions to make was to bring back Club NME after four years,” says Kelly. “They shut that down with the pandemic and it's really in line with what we're trying to do as a brand: bring people back together around a certain moment, to play together.”
In terms of the mechanics of the platform, Ladbrokes LIVE is designed to be as open as possible to the public. “It's not just for Ladbrokes' customers, because we really wanted to isolate and insulate this from our betting and bookmaking products,” says Kelly. “We wanted this to be seen as something that's new for Ladbrokes. It really puts a stake in the ground in terms of us meaning what we say when we want to be an entertainment leading brand.”
Another priority was to make it a fun experience. “We know how to create games and we know how to let people have fun,” continues Kelly. But, it’s not linked to other experiences the broader Ladbrokes brand offers. “It's not about spinning to win or anything like that. There's no gambling involved. Quite literally you hit a play button, and you get a random prize drawn for you.”
Players will either win tickets instantly or be placed into a ballot in a few weeks’ time to win any unclaimed tickets. You can also win extra plays if you refer a friend. “It's all very much separate to the betting and gaming world, but in terms of the mechanic, making it something playful was an easy decision,” says Kelly.
Calculations around how likely you are to win a ticket have been some of the most interesting conversations Kelly and her team have had. “It's been a journey. Actually, we've had some really interesting numbers-based discussions,” she says. It’s important that the delight of winning tickets is a real possibility, so Ladbrokes LIVE has landed on a guarantee of 15,000 tickets every year as a minimum to give away. Anyone can win once a week, and can play three times a week (or more if you refer a friend or win some free plays as well).
“We have been very, very careful in how we've choreographed the gaming mechanics within the platform to make sure that if we have an overwhelming success with it and we have many customers on the platform, they don’t have a horrible experience by not being able to win tickets,” says Kelly. “We're always going to be mindful to make sure that the experience is as entertaining as it can be. We want playing on the content you get through the platform itself to be just as entertaining as winning tickets, so you feel like you're winning just by going through the journey.”
The campaign also includes digital out-of-home media at The O2, and sponsorship of the NME Awards show – giving Ladbrokes the licence to talk to people who are, as Kelly puts it, “in an entertainment mindset, on their way to a gig, or on their way to have some sort of moment of play together.” Other than that, the marketing for the platform is largely taking a digital and social approach, working with a cast of influencers and talent, and using some new targeting mechanics on YouTube to help Ladbrokes reach a new entertainment audience.
PR will be key too. With the bookmaking side of the business being involved in sport, racing and national news, Ladbrokes has a significant share of voice in UK media. The brand’s in-house PR team, Nicola McGeady and Alex Apati, who are public facing and do a lot of TV and media interviews – as all bookmakers tend to do – will use the Ladbrokes LIVE launch as an opportunity to stretch into a new area that they haven't played in. “Throughout the next 12 months at least, you will see these carefully curated, unexpected moments that no one's going to know except us until they happen,” says Kelly. “And, PR will be key in amplifying and sharing those stories everywhere. So that's a key channel for us.”
Communicating to such a broad range of audiences has been a tricky challenge of the launch, but Kelly’s relished it. “It's been incredibly complex as you can imagine to develop all of these different channel-led pieces of marketing,” she says, “rather than just having a TV ad and running it across every channel. But we're really enjoying the challenge.”
